021488 Supertramp, Moncton, NB

On February 14th, 1988 I saw Supertramp at the Moncton Coliseum.  Even typing that sentence gives me a tweak of excitement so it’s funny to think that I almost didn’t go.

Though I was a big fan of Supertramp (one of the few musical influences I can thank my brother for), and a huge fan of their Breakfast In America album (definitely on my top 10 all-time favourites list) I didn’t know a whole lot about the band.  What I did know was their lead singer Roger Hodgson had recently quit the band and was chasing a solo career (remember Had A Dream?), and I wasn’t really interested in seeing the leftover members of the band with some stand-in on lead vocals.

So like I say, I almost didn’t get tickets.

What I didn’t know was that Supertramp had always featured two lead vocalists.  And while Hodgson was the guy behind huge favourites like The Logical Song and Take The Long Way Home, there was this other guy named Rick Davies (1944-2025) who I would recognize as the voice behind such awesome songs as Bloody Well Right and Goodbye Stranger (possibly my fave Supertramp song ever…or is that Fool’s Overture?).

(As an aside, it’s curious to think back to the time when it was all but impossible to know these things.  With no internet one was left to stare at band photos on the back of album covers and guess who played what or who wrote the songs.  Back in the day you only had what you were given within the covers of the albums and whatever information you could glean from rumours spread by DJ’s and/or your friend’s brother’s uncle’s cousin.  Nowadays a three second search will return twelve million results related to any question you might have about any band, album or song.  It almost takes the fun out of it.)

I suppose the fact that this show was scheduled for Valentine’s Day pushed me to buy tickets after all and I went with my Grade 11 girlfriend Vicki.  This was unquestionably a sit-down sort of concert so I was happy to enjoy a rare non-General Admission event at the Coliseum.

And man, was it a great concert.  

I soon got set straight on the whole two-singer thing and settled in for the easiest listening concert of my young life.  Rick Davies sat at his grand piano and belted out so many great songs; it was so very blissful.  I remember the sax player doubling up on clarinet and a percussion player jumping around his cube-like array of bangers and smashers; the sound was so full and every note from the recordings was right where it was supposed to be. 

Years later I would find myself at a Roger Hodgson concert or two, marvelling at how perfectly he and his three-piece band could deliver those wonderfully intricate Supertramp songs.  It would take a couple of decades before the circle was complete, but space and time notwithstanding I finally saw all of Supertramp.